Recent Comments Plugin
Get Recent Comments Plugin: [ Download ]
The recent comments plugin for WordPress blogs is an essential traffic building tool. The basic functionality is to allow you to list a summary of the comments made to your blog listed in chronological order with the most recent at the top. It is a customizable plugin allowing you to play with different variables by using different lines of code. I usually use the basic settings and list the five most recent comments in my blog sidebar.
How This Plugin Builds Traffic
The key element here is a concept known as social proof. Social proofing is an everyday human behaviour that causes people to take action based on what they see others doing. A fantastic but simple example of this behaviour is when you see a crowd of people with their heads tilted skyward looking at something airborne or on a building - most people walking by will also look up to see what all the fuss is about - that is social proof.
The whole idea of having comments within a blog is part of social proofing. When a new person visits your blog for the first time and they see other people leaving comments and interacting with your content the new visitor experiences a social proofing feeling about the validity and credibility of what you are publishing.
The new visitor thinks - “Hmm, there are comments here, that means other people read this site so there must be something good, I’m going to read too”.
By using the comments plugin you further enhance your social proofing generating repeat readership and instant credibility. Just be sure of course that you have some comments before using the plugin!
The other good point is that this plugin can increase your pageviews and visitor length time as readers click recent comments taking them to individual blog entries where they can get involved with the conversation you started by writing your article. Increased pageviews and visitor length time are two very important metrics when it comes to building a popular blog.